Romanian Communist Party

The Romanian Communist Party (PCR) was a communist political party in Romania that was active from 1921 to 1989. The party succeeded the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, as it supported communist revolution and opposed nationalism. The party was minor and illegal for much of the Interwar period, and most of its activists were imprisoned during the 1930s or fled to the Soviet Union; this created two separate and competing factions that would vie for power during the 1950s. In 1948, the Socialist Republic of Romania after King Michael I of Romania was forced into exile, and it was the only legal party in the country from 1965 to 1989. It absorbed the former Social Democratic Party of Romania in 1947 and attracted various new members, and the party came to support nationalism under Nicolae Ceausescu. While it was one of the most independent communist parties in Eastern Europe, it maintained a hardline Stalinist stance until its 1989 overthrow, during which Ceausescu was executed alongside his wife. The party was succeeded by the post-communist Social Democratic Party.